Contemporary critics viewed Peter Hänsel (1770–1831) as a principal representative of the "true" quartet school of Haydn and Mozart. Having studied composition with Haydn during the 1790s, Hänsel maintained a relatively conservative compositional stance throughout his career, carrying Haydn’s late style well into the nineteenth century while still managing to develop his own voice. A composer of almost exclusively chamber music, his fifty-eight string quartets stand out as his most significant c...